Assessing Soft Drink Choices in American Restaurants

More Than One Choice..

Why do restaurants not pay attention to the needs or wants of consumers more? Case in point: Only one choice of diet drink for customers.

How often do you go into a restaurant and have a choice of more than one diet soda or other diet drink (water excluded of course). In a day and age where nearly one in four Americans are being diagnosed as diabetic, you would think that restaurants that want your business would be a bit more sensitive to your needs.

I have asked many managers of restaurant establishments why they don’t carry more variety and I always get the same answers. 1.) They don’t have any input into such decisions and 2.) The cola companies often own the machines and dictate what can and cannot go into them.

My answer is, ok, it’s time to start holding someone accountable. No more passing the buck. If people would start asking for the manager of such restaurants and demanding that they offer more than one choice of soft drink in a diet version, it would happen in no time. It’s not that such items don’t exist. Practically any soda flavor has a diet formula counterpart. It is simply that unless pushed, the soda companies are going to do what they’ve always done, limit you to what they want to put in the highest profit, lowest cost and minimum selection necessary.

How would you ask a manager in a nice way if they couldn’t offer more than one diet soft drink choice? Between those with health issues, those on diets and those with religious views that do not allow for caffeine, I’m sure it wouldn’t be long before we would all have much more in the way of choices offered to us. Do you have any ideas of ways to promote the use of choice by restaurants more? Do you think it would be advantageous for restaurants to offer more in the way of juice, coffee or tea varieties as these enjoy growing popularity in the USA? Are you perhaps a person from a foreign country whom has visited the US and thought of something that you expected to see on the menu and did not? Share your opinions with us here.